The Pen Addict 590/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 590 |
| Title: | Writing With the Theme of Writing |
| Release Date: | November 15th, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 590 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 590 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 590 |
| Length: | 6363 min <br />1.05 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
From RelayFM, this is the Pen Addict episode 590. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, Pen Chalet, and ShipStation. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.
Hi, Brad. This show is brought to you by me and you as well. Myke, hi, how are you? You know what, Brad? That's so true. It's also brought to you by the RelayFM CMS and Libsyn.
What else? Brought to you via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Zoom, Audio Hijack, Logic. MacBook Air. It's a real family effect. Google Drive is involved. Safari. Instagram, YouTube. Sure. Tascam. Tascam. Sound devices, USB Pre 2.
And the Rotofaden Tashambegleiter. Oh, yeah. My life notebook. Oh, my G Herban blotting paper. The Zodiac pens, Aries with Papier Plume Oyster Ink. And you, chat. You. Actually, none of those.
Like, most of those things. Like, at least I'll say Rotofaden Tashambegleiter. I just saw somebody talk about that the other day and it's just been stuck in my head for a long time. And it is maybe a 400 episode ago callback.
So, shout out to the OGs. Yes. Show is brought to you by the OGs. - - All right. This is a show, Myke. We have one for you today.
It has started off rip-roaringly amazing. Oh, my God. And we are in a mood. But I want to, I don't want to bring us down, Myke. I actually want to prop us up and talk about your new Sidekick notepad website.
Oh, thank you. Yeah. So, I've been working with our wonderful, incredibly talented designer, David Daly of Yokioto Design. And I've worked with David on a bunch of projects, especially for Cortex Brand, but he's also worked on some RelayFM stuff as well over the last couple of years. And we've been putting together a new website for the Sidekick notepad.
It's at sidekicknotepad.com. I also bought sidekicknotepad.com because, you know, people are going to people. So, you can go to whichever way you think I said that. You can go there.
We have tons of beautiful imagery, most of it provided by one of my favorite keyboard creators. His name is Alex Otos. This was a, I think, genius idea that I had early on in the Sidekick's life where I realized that keyboard content creators would be great for photography for this product.
And I was correct. They are. Yeah. And it's, we're doing our best at trying to show what the product is. And I want to talk about, if you would indulge me for a moment, Brad, two things that I really love about this website. I really love some of the animations that David made.
So, like the perfect for daily notes, perfect for meetings segment where a page is ripped away. And it's left of another page underneath. I think that's really fun. And it's nice and different, which I like.
But also what we call the bento area, which is... Oh, okay. Maybe that's the area that I'm liking so much. Yeah. Which is all of the different features that the Sidekick notepad has. And each of these bentos has an original animation, which if you're on a Mac or a PC, you hover over them.
If you're on a phone, you can tap them and they do these little animations. But it's, I think, this type of design is all over the place these days. It's what is known as bento. Apple uses this a lot.
A lot of tech companies use it a lot. And David was like, I know you're going to like this. And he was right. And I think it's a really great way, I think, of showing the care that goes into making a product like this.
Because every single one of these boxes is a decision I had to make when it came to putting the Sidekick notepad together. We've got a lot of imagery, a lot of specs, and also a lovely little testimonial section as well from people that have used the product. I'm very proud of it.
And I hope that you'll check it out. You don't have to buy. I would like it if you bought one. But I just want you to go look at the website because I think it's really cute and nice and fun.
Yeah, the decision I made was to click all the bentos and turn all the borders blue at the same time. So fidget game too is what you're looking for. You can do that. You can do that.
No, that was the part that stood out to me when I was looking at the page. So yeah, very cool. Love it. And then got all the dimensions and all that stuff. And so all the deets, who makes it, all that fun stuff. So good times. Good times.
Good times. Well, congratulations and well done. You know who needs a website like this, Myke? Or what product specifically needs a website like this is the UniKuritoga Dive. Okay. Like this is a new OG, right?
Can you be a new OG? Is this a Nog? Would it be like a new G? A new G? I don't know. So this is a new recurring theme on the podcast, the UniKuritoga Dive.
It's gotten me in trouble. It's gotten me lauded. You got called down to answer for yourself at UniHQ. I called to the office.
Could Brad Dally please report to the principal office? So this has been a big part of my life, the UniKuritoga Dive. Because I love the product, right? I want it to exist, right?
It's one of those interesting things. I don't know if we can find an original show note so I don't have to link to the show where I described what the Kuruitoga Dive is. I don't want to go through all that again. But it's a very complex, complicated $50-something mechanical pencil that Uni made.
And it could use a Bento layout to describe all the pieces and parts and why it's $50 and things like that. So the short history of this pencil is that it has been tough to get, right? It has been hard to access for everyday consumers. You can't just go to a website and buy this, generally speaking, right?
It's short production runs. I don't know if that's on purpose or how Uni planned to do this whole thing. So they've had two releases now. They've released a blue model, which was the original.
Then they came out with a green and orange model later the same year, I think. And those were barely accessible at all. And now, Myke, across my Instagram comes the Uni Kuruitoga Dive. I'm calling it Purple Iridescent.
And all I can think when seeing this is, boy, this is going to be a problem. If past history indicates how Uni has handled this product lineup, this is going to be nothing but a problem. So when the first Kuruitoga Dive launched, I luckily had a friend in Japan grab me one at regular retail price, which is around $55.
They instantly sold out and went for over $200 on secondary markets. This is the coolest one yet, right? It's not just purple. It has an iridescent finish.
So I copied the translation here, which is always fun. So from Uni, what's this handle? Uni Mitsubishi Pencil on Instagram. This time, we imagined the Aurora and did a new butterfly expression that changes color depending on the angle you see.
Writing with the theme of writing. That's the best part. The Automatic Output Function Magazine's Kuruitoga Dive. Here's a go-to item for when you want to focus with your brain.
So a lot to take in there. But basically, we're getting a Purple Iridescent Kuruitoga Dive. And it's going to be nothing but an issue. Like, that's all I have to say.
If they don't make 10 times as many of this model as they've made for all the other models combined, this is going to be instantly $200. It doesn't matter. And I hate that. It doesn't matter, Brad. It doesn't matter how many of these they've made. It doesn't matter.
Like, there's too much hype now. And so it's going to sell out. Because this product will feature all of the people that like the look of this. It will feature all of the people that want one of these.
And it will feature all of the people that want a second one. And that is more people than they've made models for. I guarantee it. Because if they were able to truly, truly, like, produce this at a high level, then the product would be in stock. You know what I mean?
True. The base version. Say, like, the blue one. The original. So there's no way they made enough of these. But there's nothing they can do about it. Yeah. So I just did the yen conversion currently.
So it's 5,500 Japanese yen. It's actually about 37 US dollars. Okay. Yeah. Like, it's super cheap. But, like, I don't know who's going to be able to get this.
And that just bugs me a little bit. So we'll see. But it's just the way it goes. I know. It's just cool. I want people to have this pencil if they want it. And people are not being able to get it.
And it bugs me. You know? So anyway. This one's cool. Like, I don't need another one. Like, the Kuro Toga Dive is not a collection I need to dive into, if you will. Yeah. But, like, I have my one.
I'm fine. But, like, I just want to see other people get it if they want it. And this one looks like it's going to be pretty cool. Can you remind me? Can't wait to see.
Is there anything different in the function of the pencil? There's a few things. So, basically, they took all of their different, I don't know, technical aspects from the Kuro Toga. Yep. From the one that adjusts whatever mechanism they have that auto-advances the lead when you put the tip on the page.
Yep. And smashed it all into one, into one pencil. And then put a cap on it. And just an interesting retractable mechanism. And lots of little bells and whistles.
So, yes, it's got the same Kuro Toga mechanism. But the pipe is also adjustable. And it also will auto-advance your lead when you open the pencil and cap the pencil. I don't know. Can you fully retract the pipe in this?
No. Okay. No. It's only like a little bit. Because I thought that I heard you say that you could do that. And I was like, well, that wouldn't make any sense. Why did they do the cap?
But, okay, that makes more sense to me. But the pipe will also act as like an indicator for when the lead needs to be advanced. Like you can push it just a little bit, right? You have that little softness in the tip of the pipe that will extend the lead as you go.
So, it's kind of got all of their toys into one basket here. Yeah. I would like to have one one day just for the sake of it. But this is kind of one of those things where I'll get one in like two years. Yeah. Yeah. It's great to have one.
Like I'm super happy with it. I never use it. And I feel like, you know, Uni has been around for long enough that I would expect that they understand what's going on here. And, you know, just like from a little bit of like shared, like just like personal experience, I suppose.
If you have a product that's like getting a lot of hype, the natural thing that a lot of people do is like heavily stock the product. Like you really over order. But the problem with that is the hype will go and then you're left with too much stock.
And so like my feeling is they are trying to manage. I would expect they are trying to do a bit of management in that way. Like they could significantly over order. But if they over order too much, then they're going to have too much and the hype's gone away.
And then they're just sitting on like way too much stock. I don't know. The only positive I can think of related to that is we haven't had a mention of a new one for months. So hopefully they've built inventory correctly during this time. I'm expecting that they're just trying to just play it a bit chill.
Right. Yeah. Like build the inventory, but like don't order a million of them. Right. So like if this makes it into their online retail space, like their retail customers, which this really didn't last year, then you'll know that they've done an okay job. Yeah. Like it didn't even get that far last year because they were just poof, gone.
So, all right. So the Kura Toga could be a hot gift item for this holiday season. And if you can get it. So maybe I'll put that on my gift guide list when I talk to Anna next week. So I wanted to remind everyone to get your gift guide questions in.
I'm recording that episode on Monday. It's not going to release until the 29th of this month, but we're recording it, you know, like five, six days from now. So get your gift guide questions in. We've got several in already.
So how can people send us those questions, Myke, for Anna and I to answer? It's very simple. Just go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send in a gift guide question there. There's even a little checkbox, like a little from a dropdown. You can select gift guide.
Just type in your question, your name if you want to, your email if you want to. That's up to you. And just leave Brad and Anna a question about a gift for you, how to ask for gifts from others, or gift ideas for somebody in your life who loves stationery.
Yep. So I've been building my list of questions for Anna and I to discuss, and we would love to have your input as well. So yeah, send those in. And I always look forward to recording this. So we'll be doing that soon.
I'm very excited to hear it, as always. It's a great episode. All right. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. You can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell your products, services, and the content that you create.
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Squarespace have been around forever. They do the business. They know what's going on. They can help you out.
I have had so many Squarespace sites over my career and still do. Brad does too. They really are like the best in the biz. And, you know, we're getting ready to go into 2024 soon, right? - Which is Real AFM's 10-year anniversary. Also 10 years of uninterrupted support from Squarespace.
Amazing. They're the best. We love them, and we want you to go check them out. If you are starting a web project of your own or someone in your life is, maybe someone at your office, maybe a site for the business that you're working for, just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, and you can sign up for a free trial.
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Our thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and all of Real AFM. All right. Shout out of the week, Myke. Shout out of the week. We have Inky Rocks.
So I have followed Alessa for a long time on Instagram, and I did not realize that they also have a YouTube channel. So y'all may know Alessa on Instagram, inky.rocks. Also, frequent appearances on the Tokyo Inklings podcast. But recently, she just did a video upon return from the Tokyo Pen Show.
So I'll put a link in the show notes for everyone to go watch that. And you can go give the Inky Rocks channel on YouTube a follow like I have because I did not know it was there. And go check out their Instagram as well. This is definitely a hide your wallets type of feed.
Always has been. Always will be. And I really, really appreciate it that much because it's some really cool stuff on there. So she does a great job. So there you go. All right. Kind of related to an upcoming sponsor on this show in this episode.
I was browsing around our good friends over at the Pen Chalet, and I stumbled across a pen that I had not seen before. But it's apparently not new. And it really caught my eye. And this is more of a conversation of me reaching out to the community wondering if anyone has an ST DuPont DeFi Millennium Fountain Pen.
So they came out with this model previously with color barrels, which maybe kind of crossed my eyes like last year or something like that. I don't even remember exactly when. There's like an orange barrel, a red barrel. I think there's like blues and greens.
And like it's fine. It's ST DuPont. And like it looks cool in silver. But now they came out with this all black stealth one. And that's the one that caught my eye.
And I'm not, you know, I'm not like fully stealth like all the things. But the way this pen is shaped, like it really stood out to me. I think the black one is the best looking of all of the ones here. Like I think it works a lot better.
So that's what actually made me finally stop and look at this, right? Because I've never gone past of, oh, that looks nice. And, you know, just moved on. So I got into this link a little bit.
And, you know, just seeing the original stealth shape and color. And I was like, oh, this is cool. Let me look at this a little bit more. Then I scrolled down a little bit.
And have you seen the front end of this pen, Myke? It is the most hooded nib I've seen since a Parker 51, right? It is a very, very, you only see almost like the edge of the tines and a little bit of tipping. Yeah, a hooded nib, basically, in this scenario, the body of the grip, like I guess it could be plastic or metal, I don't know.
Extends all the way basically to the very end of the fountain pen nib. So like the nib itself, like you're really only just seeing the very end part where the line is drawn. Yeah, which is cool. Like I like that idea.
It looks like a falcon to me. That's like the profile I get here. Yeah. It's that in combination with the barrel shape. And then in combination with the all black color that stood out to me more than the previous releases of this.
So I really don't have much more to say other than I'm kind of curious if anyone has these because I think kind of the big hang up here is it's Estee DuPont. So that equals cash money. So this is $360. I don't understand Estee DuPont.
Can you explain them to me? Like this is a brand that I'm not very familiar with. It's just like almost a strictly luxury brand. Like, oh, this is I'm looking at their page on Pen Chalet right now.
This is like a for the executive in your life. Yeah. This is their starter pen price point, right? Like this is, you know, it's on up from here. So what Estee DuPont, what we've talked about in the past is when they've had like the X-Wing fighter pen and stuff like that.
So they've done some really. Yeah. I don't know if you remember that one. So where you have like the whole display and the X-Wing fighter. I just found the most American pen of all time.
I've seen that one. The Estee DuPont Declaration of Independence pen. Yeah. This thing is screaming at me through my computer. So they have a lot of pens.
Like that's their thing. They're like if Montagrappa only sold their high-end pens, right? And didn't have like the more standard traditional pens. That's what I think of when I think of Estee DuPont.
But this is a more, you know, lower entry point for them as a brand, right? It's all relative. And I'm like halfway compelled. Like I don't want to buy this or to test it out. But I am just interested if anyone has tried like one of the previous versions.
I'm assuming they make their own nibs. You know what? I have no clue. I've never owned an Estee DuPont. I have no clue how they go through this.
Their other fountain pen nibs look like it. Okay. Like they've got stamping and a design work which looks kind of, it looks unique in a way, right? Like or somebody is white labeling for them. But I would like to believe that a pen brand whose typical starting price is like four figures is making their own nibs.
Yeah. Like that's like the baseline. That's the normal Estee DuPont price range. Like that's where it starts. So Estee DuPont has a 145-year legacy of creating exceptional products for exceptional people.
Hell yeah. So yeah. There you go. So anyway. So it's Estee DuPont. Estee DuPont. Estee DuPont. So they look cool. They look cool. It's just like it's there is a barrier to entry in the pocketbook to these pens. So this has been the first one that's been kind of compelling to me.
And it's still like crazy expensive for what it is. But I don't know. I am curious. So if you own not just any Estee DuPont. This particular one. Like I'm sure all the Estee DuPont's like if you have like one of the nice expensive ones.
I'm sure it's great. But like this one's weird. Which is right up my alley. I like the weird stuff.
I actually have an extra thing for you here which is weird. So Estee DuPont also make a lot of lighters. Yes. That's what I knew them for originally. They have one lighter called the Estee DuPont DeFi XXtreme.
And so I think it's of the same range as these pens because they're called DeFi, D-E-F-I, right? Oh, D. Sure, sure, sure. It also looks visibly incredibly different to the rest of the product line. Where the rest of the product line is like all gold and silver, that kind of thing.
Interesting. But this one is like very EDC. It's got a lot of ridges and grips on the side of it, you know? I just found the Declaration of Independence lighter, Myke. No way. Where is it? Yeah. Come on, baby. It's $2,000. Whoa. It's more expensive than the pen.
What? I could buy a copy of the Declaration of Independence for that, I think. Can you imagine, Brett? I'm not suggesting anybody does this. I'm just saying, can you imagine someone buying this and then burning the Declaration of Independence with it?
Whoa. We're going to get emails. It's like this light is the Declaration of Independence now. You know what I mean? It's like takes the soul of the paperwork and puts it inside the lighter and it's ready to go.
Well, then they could. So, S.T. DuPont needs to buy a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Use one of their lighters to burn it and then make a pen from the ashes of the Declaration of Independence. Oh, come on. You know what I mean?
We got to bring this full circle here. That's how you do it. You know what I'm saying? It sells it for like a million dollars.
Brad, can I? I feel like I haven't done this, but can I just read the description for the Declaration of Independence pen? Okay. Yeah. Like, I haven't read it. I don't know what I'm going to get here, but like I'm excited about it. I'm going to jump it forward a little bit maybe.
Just for the record, this is a French company, so I'm a little bit confused. That is a very good point. So, let's go to the top. Celebrate the aspirations of America.
Well, that feels like a bit of a slight. With the S.T. DuPont Declaration of Independence Limited Edition Rollerball. I'm on the Rollerball for some reason. The U.S. exclusive.
No joke. Really? You're not selling this one in Paris, S.T. DuPont? It's a limited edition to 176 pieces. That's not a lot. Proudly exhibit the colors of old glory in a combination of solid brass, natural liqueur, and a palladium trim with the S.T. DuPont Declaration of Independence Limited Edition Fountain Pen.
This pen's bright blue lacquer pen body is paired with a red cap with intricate goldsmith-engraired stars offering a brilliant contrast. The pen's vibrant blue lacquer is layered over engraved guillage, creating a final look similar to traditional patriotic bunting used by many Americans to decorate their hands for the 4th of July.
I will say, by the way, I actually think this is a very good-looking pen. The blue, so the barrel's great. The barrel is incredible. The cap is not for me.
Yeah, me either. But that barrel sells it. The barrel's great. Because I will say, I will say, I'm not done with this yet. I will say, for a product like this, I think it is nice-looking. Because products like this tend to go a bit too hard, and I think that they have been pretty reserved.
Yeah, you could make, like, this is like $1,600. You could make the $5,000 edition of this, and it would be pretty intense. If Montegrappa made this, the pen would be shaped as a flag. Yeah, yeah. It would, or like you would.
Yeah. You'd start writing, and confetti would start pouring out the back of the pen. You can actually use this pen. That's a feature. Useable. A reminder of the power of a collective vision of human democracy. The colors of the U.S. flag serve as a beacon of strength to the world.
With the limited edition Declaration of Independence rollable pen, Estee DuPont showcases the young nation's vision and accomplishments in creating a government by the people for the people. Estee DuPont's homage to the emblem is even more poignant, as France stepped in to support the new American nation during the American Revolution.
Now, that's interesting. There we go. There we go. We found it. We brought it home. We brought it home. We found it, baby. They just, like, oh, knife in the side.
Thanks to us, the French, you're free. This is giving me so much, you know? This is the true freedom prize right here. Proudly display your patriotism in your pen collection.
Estee DuPont's Declaration of Independence limited edition rollable. Patriots and collectors alike can also consider the lighter. Oh, that gave me so much more than I was hoping for. You know? That was amazing. Don't forget us. That was amazing. We helped too. Incredible. Freedom prize. Estee DuPont, hats off to you, you know?
Hats off. Hats off to you, Estee DuPont. Well done. You're doing a good job. You're doing a good job. All right. You can check out all of these products over at our next episode.
That was not the ad. No. Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet have Estee DuPont pens, but they also have pens from all of your other favorite brands because I'm sure Estee DuPont is a new favorite brand of listeners to this show. Maybe I'll get Ron to send me one of the DeFi's.
Well, we can try. Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Sailor, Cafeco, and many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more. They're an authorized dealer of all of them and they have all of the products you're looking for. Whether you want a new rollerball, a new fountain pen, a ballpoint pen, mechanical pencil, maybe you need some refills, a carrying case, some converters, just some fun accessories.
They got it all. Pen Chalet is running special discounts every couple of weeks. You'll find new products, you'll find closeout specials, and they're always adding new styles of pens. So you can always go back and find something new.
I think back over the years, just how much Pen Chalet's catalog has grown. That is, I'm sure, part in part due to the support of people like you who listen to the show and go and support this great company. Free shipping on orders of over $75 if you're in the US, but they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates.
Pen Chalet believe in fast and reliable customer service. And they have low prices and high quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website.
And to the password, Pen Addict, for this week's special offer, and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time over at Pen Chalet. What is there, Brad? What is in the special offer area for listeners of this show? Please tell me.
We're going to keep it in America from the jump, but I'm not going to let you completely off the hook here. Oh, say can you see, you know? The Conklin All-American Demo Special Edition, they're a really great price, way more than half off, and they have a clear demonstrator, blue demonstrator, orange demonstrator, and a rose gold trim demonstrator, which all look very, very cool.
But further down, Myke, well, they have the Visconti Demo Stones, which are an awesome orange pen. I really, really like that one. They had orange, I don't know if they have purple, so orange, green, and red are the ones left. So this is a really great price for the Visconti Homo Sapiens.
But Myke, I have to talk about the Pinnider Limited Edition Queen Mary fountain pen. So here we have the Italian brand making the British pen. So the Pinnider Limited Edition Queen Mary fountain pen's somewhat vintage taste is considered contemporary to the golden age of the fountain pen when traveling and riding were synonymous with the time.
Well, I would just say, Brad, this is based on a boat, not a bus. Yeah, well, yeah. It's still a British boat. Okay. Pinnider's Queen Mary pen is layered in resin in red, white, and blue, commemorates the Queen Mary's 30 years of service navigating transatlantic routes. This thing has three portholes in it, not just one porthole.
So this is pretty amazing. So, yeah, go check this out because the price is kind of a knockout. It's a real declaration of independence style pen. So, yeah, I have not seen this before, and it is wild.
It is wild, as all Pinnider pens are. So go check out all the awesome specials over at penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict.
You will be able to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Penchalet, as well as seeing this week's special offers. Our thanks to Penchalet for their support of this show and RelayFM. I think I've made a real mistake this week trying to cover a moderately serious topic next.
Okay. Even though it's, I mean, it's by no means serious. But I wrote a review earlier this week on the Myke's Pen Fund, not named after you, named after my other Myke friend, Myke Green. Wicked Wisteria, which is this wild pink acrylic fountain pen that I reviewed on Monday.
That's the material. And Myke is a pen maker that turned this pen and was selling his pens online, sells them at pen shows. I bought mine at the Chicago Pen Show. So the question came up when I was reviewing this pen. And when I, as a reviewer, think about maker pens, there is honestly not a lot to say.
Right? The, I get a lot more value from something like Caroline's interviews, Meet Your Maker interviews, which we can do a link to that, where we hear the story of the makers, how they got into making the pens, you know, why they do the things they do, why they make the designs they make.
But then when it gets down to me having a pen to review, you know, it's an acrylic turn barrel with a steel nib, nine times out of ten. And there's only so many things you can say about it. So I got to thinking that I wanted to review this pen, and I've reviewed maker's pens pretty frequently.
How do I choose a maker's pen for me? And I thought that was a good way to bridge kind of the gap of like a product review when, this is a very like specific item to an individual customer and buying a pen from an individual maker. So Myke's pen that I bought kind of checked all the boxes for me.
And I thought that would be good to talk about what those boxes actually are when I'm out here shopping and checking out all kinds of makers. Because we're having like, we're in like another maker's renaissance here, right? Where we're just having a lot of people making a lot of pens.
It kind of came out of like the pandemic times where people were getting into new hobbies that they could do at home. And a lot of people were making pens. A lot of people were making materials. Some people were making hardware for these pens.
All kinds of different things. So in the end result, now we have a lot of people with a lot of pens for sale. And a lot of us see them online, on Instagram, at pen shows, you know, through various stores, things like that. So what do I look for when I'm walking up to a table that I have no idea about the person, the maker, the products, anything like that?
What do I like in these pens that I see? And you see, you've seen pictures, you know, these, you walk up to a table, it's just a rainbow full of pens, right? All kinds of materials. Some of them with a lot of different shapes.
Some of them with a singular shape. So Myke's were generally a single general shape, you know, just kind of like a standard, straight-sided, rounded-in pen. So when I look at this, I look at a lot of the craftsmanship, a lot of craftsmanship-specific things. So if I'm looking at a polished pen, so when you're looking at these acrylic pens, there's kind of two general different feels to the pen.
You have the glossy, shiny look. That's a polished pen, right? When the pen is done being made, there's different buffing that the maker can do to kind of polish up and make them a glossy finish. Or, conversely, you can have a matte finish.
You can take the same material and finish it a little bit. Rougher's not the right word, but it is a more texture-based feel, right? It doesn't have the shine or the gloss. It doesn't reflect the light off of it.
It just kind of absorbs the light off of it. It's two different feels. And both of them are great, right? I have pens that are glossy.
I have pens that are matte. I like them both. But when you're buying one or the other, what do I look for? So if I'm buying a glossy pen, I want to see this finish on this pen to be consistent, right?
And I think that's one of the things that I look for. So you can get, and I've seen it before, you can get an uneven polish, right? Where some areas aren't as glossy or as shiny as the others. And like this example of this pen, like it's just perfectly done from tip to tail.
Like it's really glossy, really finished very well. I also look at the threads on the pen. Like do, you know, threading is not an easy thing to make for manufacturers, right? So are the threads smooth?
Does everything work as intended, right? And I'm not just talking about the cap. I'll always, I'm not talking about the cap threads. The barrel threads are just as important, right?
So you unscrew the internal of the barrel as well. Like I'm taking apart this pen while I'm sitting here shopping for the pen in front of, you know, these makers. Like I'm kind of disassembling it, if you will. And I want to see how that works, right?
Because, you know, you want to make sure that the internals are as good as the externals, right? All the way through. Because that's going to help with the longevity of your pen, right? If you have wonky threads or, you know, something's a little bit off kilter, like you're just going to have an annoyance later, if not a problem.
So, and, you know, does the barrel like thread on seamlessly, right? Is the cap seam and the barrel seam flush all the way around? Like, is that even? Like, is it off center a little bit?
Which you'll sometimes see when people are just starting, you know, you can have a little bit of an off center feel to that. So that's one of the things. And then on the personal front, I want to know what the fit and feel of the pen is like in my hand, right?
So is it heavy? Is it light? Is it well balanced? Does the grip section fit my fingers? Like, is it concave or straight?
Like, it doesn't matter what it is, but does it fit, right? I have concave pins. I have straight grip pins and all of the above. And does it fit?
Does it work? Do I have enough clearance from my fingers and the threads for the cap? If that's the way the pen is designed. Do I have enough clearance from the edge of the barrel where the cap seals, right? Is there a big step down there that gets in the way of my fingers?
Is it sharp? Is it rounded? So there's a lot of little things that you can think about when you're stepping up to a maker's table to check out what they're offering. And like, I didn't even define what a maker is in the beginning because it's almost impossible, right?
Like, you make notebooks. Like, I make metal pens, right? They're all different types of definitions. But I think generally, if you've been to a pen show or looked at pens online, generally small, individual, one- or two-person shops, a lot of handmade stuff, hand-turned stuff, or design stuff, design and manufactured stuff.
You know, there's a lot of different classifications of makers. But for this purpose, I'm definitely talking about, like, the fountain pen makers all the way from, like, Edison pens to a Sean Newton to a smaller maker who's just kind of doing this as a hobby, like Myke at Myke's Pen Fund.
So that's kind of my little description of what I look for when I pick up a pen from someone who's making the pen themselves. They don't have to make the material. Like, Myke gets the material rods from other makers. Like, this particular material was from Divine Pens Plus.
Some people, like Jonathan Brooks at Carolina Pen Co., makes his own materials, right? So he'll make the materials and turn the pens, right? So there's lots of different ways you can go about looking at this. So it's a big, confusing, kind of complex world.
But it boils down to when you're doing this and shopping for a pen like this at a pen show, you need to figure out what suits your style, right? What's important to me may not be important to you, right? Like the weight or the balance or the size or the length or the shape of the grip section.
You, myself, and, you know, whoever's listening could have completely opposite taste. You just need to know what you're looking for when you go up to a maker and then figure out, do these things work for you? And in the end, you know, I ended up with a really, really great pen from Myke.
And it's one that I enjoy and one I kind of can't put down even though this is a very simple pen, right? It is not complex. And that's good. Like I like this, that it shows off the material, right? And that's kind of what this is made for.
So anyway, I just wanted to point out a few of those things. I definitely, you know, if y'all have questions about that, I'm always glad to answer, you know, your thoughts. Like every, every maker does things a little bit different and you end up finding out like what works for you.
The more you look at these things, the more questions you ask. But that's one good thing about makers. Even if you can't get to a pen show, even online, they want to talk about their pens, right? Because they're very passionate about these things.
So don't hesitate to ask questions on, if you see them on Instagram or on their websites and their contact forms, things like that. And especially in person as you're checking out of the wear. So there you go. That, I thought I would bring that up a little bit when I did this review.
And I love this pen and I probably need to stop taking pictures of it because people yell at me. It is a good looking pen. I mean, everything you described though, like is the benefit of in-person pen shows. Totally. Because you just can't do like 75% of these things online, you know, like holding it, feeling the weight.
Like what was the pen that you mentioned recently that looked light, but when you received it, it was like incredibly heavy. Do you remember? I think we were talking about this last week. That like there's a pen that like you picked, you pick it up and you're like, oh my God, like you had no idea.
You don't want to talk like that. Oh yeah, yeah. The, the, the Otto Hoot design. That was it. Yeah. Because it looks like it's just made of plastic. And it's thin. Like it's a narrow pen, right?
And you pick it up and it's, it's, it's a sizable weight pen, right? So yeah, that's, that's something you can't even look at that and say, oh, it's X amount of grams when you're looking at a website that doesn't always relate. And plus there's a whole balance issue, right?
Like I, I'm very lucky to be able to go test out a lot of this stuff in person. And I, I just want to be able to communicate those things to people who aren't able to get out there and kind of explain all the difference, even though there's like slight differences and there's a lot of nuance and context involved.
I want to be able to share like those thoughts and at least put those thoughts in people's heads as they're thinking about, you know, making a purchase. All right, let's take a break, final break of the episode and then we'll do some last TPA to close out. What do you think?
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I think it's been a few weeks since we've hit these ass TPAs, so we might be a little bit behind on these, but we always hold them in there. We're very, very behind, but I brought some in. First one comes from Kathleen who says, My father-in-law gave me his Mont Blanc Meisterstruck 149 that was given to him upon retirement from a job in the 80s.
I was able to get the ink out through a several-day soak in a shot glass full of soapy water, but I wasn't able to unscrew the pen. There seems to be two places where you can unscrew it. The one towards the end will unscrew to a point, but the one by the nib is stuck, stuck, stuck.
What should I do? So, I'm a little bit confused, and I think I know what Kathleen's getting at. So, this is, if it's 149, it's a piston filler, so I'm guessing that's the one towards the end is the piston mechanism. Yeah. And the one towards the front, or the one by the nib is where the grip section in the barrel opens, right? -huh.
So, I'm not sure that it actually should open there. I'm not like a Mont Blanc 149 professional, so I've added in a couple of links here, including one of Mont Blanc's own guides to where they discuss some of the assembly of their pens. But their 149, given that it's a piston filler, it's not going to open up from that front end, right?
So, you just have that piston opening in the back, and you could maybe remove the nib itself, like the nib in the feed, out from the front end of the pen. But it probably doesn't have a separate, unscrewable area. You're probably looking where the cap threads are, and that does not unscrew, right?
It's part of the piston filling mechanism like that. And those Mont Blanc's, I don't believe it comes off. So, I put a couple of links in the show notes. There's one disassembly video that I found on YouTube.
The 149 is probably the most popular fountain pen, like, ever made. I mean, not by quantities, right? There's obviously, you know, Parker's and Esther Brooks back in the days. But just, it's a well-known pen that there's a lot of content out there made about, including disassembly posts.
So, I would take a look at the video I linked, and I'd take a look at the Mont Blanc page. But I don't think you're having, I don't think you're going to be able to unscrew anything else on the front end of that pen. I don't believe that's how those pens work.
So, you just need to look at removing the nib, which is a different thing from unscrewing the barrel in the front end. So, that said, I would keep, I would give it another good soaking and try again from there. And if you can get the water to run clean without unscrewing anything else through the piston cleaning through water and running it through there and soaking, you could probably use the pen.
I would fill it up with water first to make sure it doesn't leak, right? So, clean it out, get it so the water's running clear, then actually fill the piston mechanism and the pen with water and leave it for a couple days and see if it leaks any.
And then after that, then you're looking at some maintenance. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But yeah, take a look at these links in the show notes, and I don't think you're going to be able to unscrew the front end of that pen. Gary says, I've been into pens and stationery for many years and have a small collection of fountain pens.
I'm thinking of going to my first pen show, the Leeds pen show here in the UK, in early December. That would be my first experience. My question is, what should I expect and how should I get the best out of the show? I mean, one thing is that whole topic from earlier, right?
Like that you'll get to go and handle pens, right? So, like, just go and pick everything up. Like, that is, like, one of the best things that you can do at a pen show. Just go and pick everything up because you don't otherwise get an opportunity to do that.
What else would you recommend, Brad? So, the UK pen shows are one day. Usually, I haven't looked specifically at the Leeds show. I'm assuming it's also a one-day show.
I would go there at the beginning, right? I would start, like, the early. I would get there before they open and get ready to go in when they start because it'll only get busier throughout the day. There'll be a crowd there at the beginning, but it'll continue to rise throughout the day.
So, I would have an idea of kind of piggybacking on what Myke just said. To have, like, if you've been looking at a few pens online, say, a Pilot Vanishing Point or a Leonardo Memento Zero, I would make a list of those pens you've always seen online but never had the chance to pick up and use or to hold to see how they fit and how they feel and make a point to walk around to different vendors to see if they have those pens and kind of get that experience of at least holding them, if not using them.
Not every opportunity will you be able to use those pens, right? Like, not every pen in those shows are inked up or available to test, but a lot of people will have those testers. So, that's what I would look at. I would take it all in, right?
I definitely always believe in taking, you know, a full lap of the show, just kind of going slow, taking it in, see the things that were on your list, and then after you've done that, then kind of make a plan if you want to make a purchase, whether it's even just ink or a notebook, or you want to look at that vanishing point again for the second time, or you found this vintage Parker 51 that you want to ask more questions about, right?
You know, if you're into vintage, you know, you want to find out if the pen has been restored or not, right? To make sure it's going to be a good writer for you when you take it home. So, that's what you want to do. I say go early, have a list of what you want to see, right?
Not what you want to buy, but have a list of what you want to experience, right? And check those out, and then just go from there. Then you can just play it by ear and figure out what you want to do if you actually want to buy anything.
So, that's how I would do it. Take it slow, take it all in, have a list, and have fun. Perfect. Caroline says, I'm not a big user of rollerballs, and whenever I hear them spoken about, I'm confused by the tip sizing. You recently mentioned the Pilot G2 refill with a, quote, 0.7mm fine point.
0.7mm is not fine in fountain pen tips, as far as I understand. Like, a 1mm stub nib exists, and that's a big deal. And I think the 0.5mm preppy is considered a medium, right? Are rollerballs sized on a different scale than fountain pens?
If so, why? I mean, rollerballs, a lot of them are sized differently between rollerballs as well. So, it's a complex, I can't give you a black and white answer to this question, but I can give you some general ideas, right? Because I could take, I could take, like, different, like, non-fountain pens, and comparatively speaking, what are you actually measuring, right?
So, let's start with the non-fountain pens. So, your traditional, say, your Pilot G2 pens. When you talk about a 0.7mm, you're not talking about the line on the page. You're talking about the technical size of the opening of the nose cone that the ball sits in on these pens, right?
So, it's a measurement, not a line width. So, when I have a 0.5mm pen from Zebra and a 0.5mm pen, both gel pens from Pilot, they could write differently depending on the paper you use, depending on the ink color, right? Sometimes the formulations are different. But the expectation is that that nose cone measurement where the ball resides is both 5mm.
You may not get a 5mm line out of that. For example, if I take the same Zebra 0.5mm gel ink pen and put it next to a 0.5mm ballpoint pen, Uniball Jetstream, the way the Jetstream ink works, it's going to be a much finer line out of that pen.
So, that's one part of the complexity here. Secondly, that terminology does not cross over into fountain pens, fine, medium, extra fine. Those things do not cross over whatsoever. Even, you could look at ballpoint pens as a great example.
So, what one company describes as a medium, say, Caran d'Ache has a medium ballpoint pen. That's probably a 1.0mm. Uniball has a medium refill that could be 0.7mm, right? So, you just have to take that into context of each company, each brand.
I know this is not simple. It's confusing, and it's not easy to understand. Over into fountain pens, we now have regional issues. Similar to the different size gel and ballpoint refills that you could run across.
Northern nibs and a lot of European manufacturers fall into this category. German nibs, Italian nibs, French nibs. They use one sizing, general guideline for extra fine, fine, medium, and broad. And then, in the Eastern market, the Japanese brands, a lot of them use a different sizing for extra fine, fine, medium, and broad.
So, what you have, if you take your Platinum Preppy medium nib and compare it to a Lamy medium nib, you're going to see a huge difference in these. So, I wish I could give you just this crystal clear answer, but it's really just learning about the regional differences in fountain pen nibs, which company ascribes to which nib system, how individual nibs are going to differentiate between those companies, how nib materials are going to change the line width.
Even if they both are marked fine, you could have a fine steel nib and a fine gold nib. Guess what? They're probably going to write different line widths, too. So, it is not a universal system that anyone uses. So, I probably made this worse for Caroline, I'm guessing.
So, if you have specific questions, like, I can answer all of these questions, but trying to describe this in general terms is almost impossible. Because no one uses one universal system that we can all go off of, right? There's no universal fountain pen tip size. Unless you're getting into, like, Caroline mentioned, like, a 1.0 millimeter.
Yes, everyone is making a 1.0 millimeter stub at 1.0 millimeter across, right? That's fine. Those are universal. But some companies just make a stub nib. What size is that, right? And how does that relate to a 1.0 millimeter?
So, it's an exceedingly complex answer that I cannot do much better than this. But I can answer every question specifically between one pen versus another, gel pen versus ballpoint, all of these things. So, it's endless, endless information in this aspect. And I get the confusion that they have.
Just understand, in a basic level, that standard pen sizing does not cross over to fountain pen sizing whatsoever. Michael writes in to say, I'm not sure if you've seen this already, Brad, but in case you haven't, they've opened a Books Kinokinuya location in Atlanta. There's a Chicago store that's a little closer than Atlas Stationery for us suburbanites.
My daughter and I like shopping there for cases, washi tape, and more. Did you know about this, Brad? I did. I got, my messages blew up when they opened this in Atlanta. I think it was over the summer, so just a couple months ago, that they opened this Kinokinuya.
And you and I went to the one in New York. It's awesome. When we, yeah, it's an amazing, yeah, huge. It's essentially a bookstore, right? And then usually in these other locations, like a lot of the locations, they'll have a whole stationery floor.
Like the one we went into was two levels. Like the upstairs, like the street level was the bookstore. And then you go into the basement, it's like the magazine and gift shop. And it's not like a basement, it's like a gigantic place.
So I need to get to Kinokinuya. I need to make sure my budget's ready for that trip because it's such a great shop. They do a wonderful job with stationery curation at Kinokinuya's historically. So I will be anxious to get to the one in Atlanta and I will do that one day for sure.
And Joe writes in to say, I'm getting married in April and I'm in search of a pen to sign the Ketubah. I think I said that correctly. I apologize if I didn't. This is a Jewish marriage contract.
It is a piece of art that ultimately will be displayed. The paper is cold press, slightly textured, acid-free art paper and is recommended to use a, quote, micro pigment pen with archival ink. Obviously, a fountain pen is out since four of the five signatories don't regularly use them.
I imagine something like a Sakura Pigma Micron would be a good choice. But I can't help but wonder, is there a nicer option for this special occasion? So we have actually had like this similar question before. Well, I mean, even I had one and I ended up giving up because it just felt like too much complication and did whatever the registrar told me to do.
Yeah. So when the recommendation is to use, and this is Joe's quote, so he's getting this literally from the recommendation, micro pigment pen with archival ink. They're saying you should use a Sakura Pigma Micron is literally what they're saying. Yeah. And that's why Joe says, I imagine the Sakura Pigma Micron is a good choice.
That is literally the description of the Sakura Pigma Micron. So the question is, can I get a nice one? So short answer is no. Yeah. But they do make a sleeve for the Sakura Pigma Micron.
I've reviewed it on the blog. And Sakura makes it. It can at least fancy up the exterior of the barrel. I'll have to go pull the link or if I vamp long enough, Myke can maybe pull the link.
Sakura Pigma Holder. Yeah. So they do a holder. It's about $20. This is hilarious that they make this product. They make a black one, a silver one, and a blue, dark blue one, I believe, if I'm remembering this correctly. And I have the silver one.
It really, it just, it fancies up the barrel of the Sakura Pigma Micron. This is the way to do it. Yeah. The Micron is one of the great pens of all time with one of the ugliest barrels ever. But they're so ingrained to people see that barrel and know exactly what that pen is because it's a legitimately good pen.
So they made this sleeve to go over and say, hey, look, it's not as ugly now. And that's an option. And it works, right? I have one. It sits on my desk.
I have the silver one. It's really, really nice. Outside of that, if you wanted to experiment before you did this and do something a little bit weird, you could buy one of the either, like the Euchre's type felt tip refillable pens or a rollerball fountain pen pen. Like Monteverde makes a tip that takes fountain pen ink and then use like your diatrament as document inks, right?
Your permanent inks. I recommend not to do any of these things. Yeah. Like the Micron's the safe choice. The other one is something you would want to experiment with beforehand. Yeah. Don't mess it up.
The Micron's going to work. You can still keep the pen if it's important to you, right? Even if it's just a plastic secure Pigma Micron, like you can just like keep it. You could get the barrel engraved.
Yeah. It doesn't matter what it is, right? But I like that combo that you just said, right? Get the holder and get the holder engraved. Job done. And get at least an 05 tip Micron.
You want a wider the tip, the better, right? They go down very, very small. 05 is like their medium tip. That's as fine as I would go. So that would be my recommendation for that.
Here's kind of like a rule for life for me. Just try not to be that person, you know? Well, breaking out the fountain pen. It's difficult. Yeah. Breaking out the fountain pen would be that person in this case.
And like as much as Joe wants to use it and much as I would love Joe to use it, I would just go with this, go with the Micron, get the sleeve for it. And it's at least a little bit of a step up. All the efficient wants to do or the registrar, right?
They just want to do their job, you know? Yeah. And then like you're coming in with your pen, messing it all up, right? Just like, you know, they just want to do the job. Sometimes us stationery lovers have to stand down, right?
Yeah, you've got to. Yeah, stand down. Stand down, Joe. Your poor partner, they've got enough to think about. You're spilling ink everywhere, you know? Yep, yep. Great question. Love it. Great question. But you have an option, which is great.
If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on a future show, you go to penaddictfeedback.com. Penaddictfeedback.com. But you can also send your gift guide questions and suggestions there, too, for the gift guide episode. I would like to thank our sponsors for supporting this week's show.
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Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.